Zeek Bigger has emotional motivation to make Panthers, but hasn’t even told teammates

It was a Friday in June, and the drowsy Southern sun was beginning to dip lazily in the sky. Zeek Bigger was on the phone, laughing.

He was speaking with his best friend, former East Carolina football teammate and housemate Domonique Lennon, on one of their daily FaceTime calls.

The two were joyful, exuberant favorites in the locker room at ECU, and Lennon was excited for Bigger, who in May had signed a free agent contract with the Carolina Panthers, just 20 minutes from his hometown in Gastonia.

“We were laughing and playin’,” Bigger said. “He was telling me how blessed he felt I was for getting this opportunity.”

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The conversation reverted, as it always did, from supportive to playful.

“He was in his car, he was (down to) his underwear,” Bigger said. “I said, ‘Boy! What’re you doing in your underwear?’ And he said, ‘It’s hot!’ I said, ‘You got the air conditioning on?’ He said ‘It’s still hot!’”

The female caller said she thought someone had gotten shot as she was walking by Raleigh restaurant Bahama Breeze. She started to cry, because she said a man she was with saw blood and thought someone was dead. She said it looked like the person had holes in his arm.

“I don’t know where he’s hit. ... He’s not moving at all,” she said, according to the recording of the call released by police.